


Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This

by broriartys



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Additional Tags May Be Added, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Cas has finally found his soulmate but his soulmate doesn't remember him, Dean is a cutie bean but he doesn't really have a clue what's going on, Destiel - Freeform, Dreams, First Kiss, First Love, Fluff, Gabriel would fight anyone to protect Cas, I have no idea how to tag, Jock!Dean, Lucifer is a nice guy in this one, M/M, Sabriel - Freeform, Strangers to Lovers, The Novak family is the sweetest, but i have no idea how, i really want to stuff sabriel in there as well, nerd!Castiel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-20
Updated: 2018-05-31
Packaged: 2019-05-09 12:06:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14715731
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/broriartys/pseuds/broriartys
Summary: When one reaches a certain age, they meet their soulmate in their dreams, having the full control of what happens while they’re both asleep. In universe, where having a soulmate is an essential part of life, Castiel’s one couldn’t get more complicated. Everyone has a soulmate. And so does Castiel. But things are much worse as his soulmate doesn’t remember him.





	1. The hierarchy of pies

It all started two years ago, over the summer holidays. Every single one of Castiel’s siblings had already started having dreams. Lucifer was the first one to meet his soulmate in the real word and Meg would soon become like a family member to all of them. To everyone’s surprise, Lucifer and Meg weren’t dating and according to both of them, they never would do that either.

“Darling, please, don’t make me laugh! I wouldn’t date that idiot even if my life depended on it. But having him as my best friend, that’s a lot of free coffee for me.“ Meg chuckled after Castiel had asked her about hers and Lucifer’s relationship one day. Once Lucifer finished highschool, he dived straight into the college student life, leaving him under the pressure of crushing debt. Even though they didn’t come from a rich family, their father wouldn’t hesitate to support his son both emotionally, and financially. However, Lucifer had refused his financial help and decided to pay his loans off by working in a small coffee shop in his free time. 

Meg strolled into their living room, mug with hot chocolate in her hand, phone in the other. She swung herself onto their couch and rested her legs on the conference table. “How did ya sleep, unicorn?“ she asked. “Any luck?“

“Guess,“ Castiel sighed from his spot on the ground where he sat, leaning his back against the wall. He was in the middle of reading a book, a thick one, which he had to hold with both of his hands so he would able to read.

“Maybe small nerds like you don’t even get soulmates. Maybe your soulmate’s a calculator,“ she teased him, but noticing the sad look he gave her, she quickly shook her head and offered him a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry about it, Cassie. You just need to wait for your princess. Or a prince,“ she winked at him, giggling.

Everyone has a soulmate. At least that was Castiel told ever since he remembered. In fact, he had actually stopped believing that everyone has a soulmate. Especially him. His siblings have started having dreams, Lucifer had even managed to meet his soulmate – Meg. Gabriel was telling stories about his soulmate for ages, every story sounding more unbelievable than the one before. The only thing he had told them about his soulmate was that it was a boy. Any time someone asked Gabriel for more details, he made up the most ridiculous answer anyone could possibly imagine.

Everyone has a soulmate. Except for me, Castiel thought. It wouldn’t be a surprise after all. Cas‘ social skills weren’t really bright, and all his inter-human interactions were either embarassing or awkward, sometimes even both.

“I don’t wanna interrupt your boring reading session, but we’d better go, lil‘ bro.“ Gabriel called as he run down the stairs. He quickly grabbed both his and Cas’s backpack and headed to the car. 

Their car was probably the most ordinary car one could imagine. Plain green coloured Honda Accord from the year 2000. The car distinguished itself from all the other cars in the neighbourhood, but nobody really noticed the old thing anyway. Their dad got it for half the price somewhere, none of them even remembered where. No matter the car’s dull and rather old looks, everyone had some feelings attached to it. Their dad cherished it as if it was one of his children, Gabriel had hidden dozens of candy all over the car, and for Castiel it offered a way not to take the school bus and avoid other kids. 

“Hop in loser, we’re going...well, commit a fucking suicide in form of attending all of those boring classes.“ Gabriel laughed as he seated himself at the driver’s seat, starting the engine before Castiel even managed to get in.

Castiel rolled his eyes and reached for the car door handle, but right as he almost wrapped his fingers around it, Gabriel moved the car slightly forward, making Cas miss the handle.

“Alright, alright, come in. And don’t look at me like that!“ Gabriel snickered at Castiel’s obviously annoyed face expression, and once the boy seated himself in the passenger’s seat, they set off to school.

The school both Gabriel, Castiel and couple of years before them Lucifer attended was the only one in their neighbourhood. That meant everybody knew even about the smallest things that happened. That’s probably what Castiel hated the most about their school, the never-ending gossip. In a small town like this, nothing stayed a secret for longer than a short while.

Castiel got out of the car with a frown already creasing his forehead. 

“I am not saying you could skip a class from time to time, but you really could skip a class from time to time,“ said Gabriel who followed him out of the car. “Especially when you keep acting like this,“ he waved his hand toward the worried yet annoyed look on Cas‘ face. 

“I am not skipping a class, Gabriel.“

“You should learn how to chill out, man,“ his brother shrugged his shoulders and waved him a goodbye as he headed to the building, leaving Castiel by the car alone. He looked down at his quite worn out shoes and sighed. There was no point in avoiding the inevitable.

He kept his head down and held his backpack close to his chest, not looking at the other students as he made his way to his classroom. When he finally reached his seat in the middle of the classroom, he set his backpack down on the floor and sat down in his seat. 

Castiel always tried not to caught anyone’s attention. He wasn’t a popular kid nor the loser one. People remembered losers. He was the nobody of their class. A kid so ordinary others would easily forget that he was even there. Castiel truly didn’t mind that. He prefered sollitude, as most of his past interactions with fellow classmates weren’t quite nice. He used to be bullied, but now noone even bothered to make fun of him, which was a really pleasant change.

The day went quickly, and for the whole time, Castiel focused on this tidy, neat notes. He always kept his notes detailed and colour-coded. The reason was simple, there was no way anyone would lend him their notes, so he had to make his own fully efficient.  
\--  
“You seem sad. Is that because of the dreams? You still haven’t had any, have you?“ Charlie asked him when she joined him at lunch. She brushed her ginger curls off her shoulder and quickly tied them up into a ponytail, to avoid her hair from getting in her lunch.

Castiel nodded.

“Universe has a weird sense of figuring things out. You shouldn’t worry about it. In the end, everything happens the way it was supposed happen.“ She offered him a kind smile and friendly patted his shoulder.

Charlie was his best friend ever since he could remember. She was in fact his only friend. It made no sense to him why she chose him of all people to be her best friend. She was quite popular, but not one of those mean kids, she was actually one of the kindest people Castiel’s ever met. She never picked on him and always stood by his side, no matter what.

“Maybe I don’t even need a soulmate, when I have you,“ Cas laughed, but he meant every single word. 

“Aww, c’mon!“ Charlie giggled and softly slapped his arm.  
\--  
The only class they had in the afternoon was PE, loved by almost all of the kids, despised by Castiel. Charlie was lucky enough to have her doctor write an excuse for her so she didn’t have to attend PE at all. It was no surprise to anyone, Charlie always find her way to achieve her goals, and right now those goals were not having to run a single distance the whole year.

While all of the other boys were changing into their sporty clothes in the dressing room, Castiel grabbed his bundle of clothes and changed in the bathroom stall. He never felt comfortable undressing in front of other people. Especially when his thin lanky arms and legs, looked nothing like his classmates‘.

His class was really good at sports, almost all the members of their school’s football team came from his class. Even the captain of the football team was his classmate. Dean Winchester, the tall built blonde guy, whom for some reason everybody loved. Castiel couldn’t say he hated Dean, that would be a lie. Dean’s never proven to be an asshole, he always acted nice to everybody, even nobody like Cas included. But Castiel’s experience with popular people was that they couldn’t be trusted. And he wasn’t going to make an exception for Dean Winchester.

“Hey, Cas! You wanna play?“ Dean called, as if he knew Castiel was just thinking about him. He waved his arm at him to catch his attention. As always, Dean was surrounded by the people from his football teams and his admirers.

“I’d rather pass,“ Castiel said quietly and shook his head. Who knows if Dean even heard him, but the captain seemed he had either heard Cas or simply didn’t care what he said, because he was already organising the game.

Rest of the class went smoothly. Noone paid attention to what Castiel was doing during PE, so he had a chance to snuck into the dressing room and continue reading the same thick book he was reading in the morning when Meg interrupted him. 

Soon, he was back in the car with his brother, who was already interrogating him about how his day went.   
"What did you eat for lunch? Have you talked to Charlie? Have you seen any orcs, fairies or elves? Oh nevermind that, have a snack!“ Gabriel babbled and then pulled out a candy bar from under the car seat as if it was a completely normal place to stash food in.

Meg stayed for dinner, Lucifer and her actually cooked the dinner all by themselves. As they proved, Lucifer was not only a skilled barista but also a really good cook. While Luci was making most of the cooking, Meg entertained the Novak family with one of her many funny stories. This one was from the time she was living in a local dormitory and her roommate decided to bring a turtle as a pet. Castiel didn’t remember what happened to the turtle under the no-pet policy as he completely spaced out during the conversation, occasionally nodding as his only contribution to the talk.

It was nearly the bedtime. This always made him really anxious. Even though he had already given up on the idea of having any dreams at all, it still made him feel bad. He was once again the weird one, the kid who will never find his soulmate.

“I’ll do the dishes,“ he offered and rushed everyone out of the dining room. 

“What kind of kid would rather do the dishes than slack off?“ Lucifer asked. Castiel hasn‘t even realised he didn’t leave with the others.

“The one who has no interest in sleeping,“ Castiel said softly, hoping Lucifer didn’t hear him.

Sleep and dreams were important part of everyone’s lives. In dreams people could reconnect with their soulmates, share their feelings. It was a pleasant escape from reality and Castiel wasn’t offered one.

“I know you probably feel like there is nothing more important than having those stupid dreams already, but trust me, there is much more to life. You are more important, Cas. Don’t worry about things you can’t affect, bro.“ Lucifer looked into his eyes and smiled at him kindly. “And now put the plate back in the sink, or I’ll break your stupid skinny arm.“ He laughed and pushed Castiel away from the sink, washing the dishes instead of Cas.

“Night, Luci.“ Cas smiled sadly and went upstairs to his room. If there was nothing more, at least Castiel had a really good family.  
\--  
“In my opinion, cherry pie and apple pie are equally good,“ Castiel chuckled, shaking his head shyly.

“Equally good?! Good lord, you’ve got to be kidding me! Apple pie is much better! No offense to cherry pie, that one is awesome as well, but apple pie is superior. It’s like a king of pies.“ Dean Winchester laughed loudly, passionately gesticulating his hands in the air as he defended his favourite kind of pie.

“Or maybe a queen,“ Cas added, looking up at the blue sky. There were couple of clouds floating around, but not too many. It was sunny hot day, and even the grass they laid on was warm from all the heat. 

“Queen or king, it doesn’t matter, the point is that it tastes good,“ Dean snorted.

“I don’t know, I wouldn’t underestimate the hierarchy of pies if I were you.“

“The hierarchy of pies? Who the hell speaks like that?“ Dean couldn’t stop laughter from leaving his lips as he grinned happily.

Castiel shrugged his shoulders. This was probably the first time someone other than his family teased him and it didn’t cause him any distress.

“If you don’t believe me, you have to come over some time. And try my mom’s recipe for apple pie. You will probably never eat anything equally good in your whole life.“

“You’re inviting me over? Aren’t you supposed to buy me a drink first?“ Castiel laughed. 

Suddenly, talking seemed so easy. Talking to Dean wasn’t like having conversation with anyone else he’d ever talked before. It was almost like talking to Charlie, he didn’t feel the urge to overthink every word that left his mouth. It felt freeing. 

“Your mom bakes often?“ He added, looking over at Dean.

Dean frowned and clenched his jaw, his attitude seemed to completely change within a couple of seconds. Castiel couldn’t really name the emotions he read from Dean’s face. Only when Dean spoke again, Cas would learn that it was sadness that made Dean turn stone cold.

“My mom died in a housefire when I was little,“ Dean said simply, looking up at the blue sky as if he was trying to avoid eyecontact.

Castiel felt as if he was punched in the stomach. It had never occured to him that Dean’s life wasn’t as perfect as it seemed to the outside world. He always seemed so cheerful around people, which made Cas think that Dean had no problems in his life at all.

“I’m sorry,“ Castiel apologised, a small worried frown creasing his forehead. “I know how it feels. Well, not exactly—But I know how it feels growing up without a mom. Ours abandoned us. Who even knows why. My siblings, Gabe and Luci, they remember her. The only thing I recall is that she had really pretty blue eyes.“ 

“Like yours,“ Dean noted. He seemed calmer than before and he even smiled at Castiel. 

“Like mine.“  
\--  
Castiel woke up, all sweaty and really terrified. He had a dream. He had his first dream. He has a soulmate.

His soulmate is Dean fricking Winchester.

Castiel felt as if he was pinned to his bed with the weight of the whole world. He simply couldn’t move for a while as his brain was trying to process the dream he had just woken up from. 

“You seem weirdly quiet. Correction: You seem even more weirdly quiet than usually,“ Gabriel teased him. Castiel knew this was just his brother’s way of asking whether everything was okay.

“I’m fine, I just didn’t sleep very well,“ he lied. It wasn’t anything unusual for Castiel to spend the whole night overthinking the whole dream-soulmate thing, so this answer was a suitable one. The thing that bothered him was that this was the first time he’s ever lied to anyone from his family. Dean Winchester is in his life for a mere 30 minutes and he’s already changing Castiel to a worse version of himself. At least Cas thought so.

They ate in silence, Castiel frowning at his cereal, Gabriel texting someone under the table the whole time. The way to school was quiet as well, the silence was only interrupted by Gabriel chewing on some candy bars, which were, of course, stacked under the driver’s seat.

“I’ll talk to you after school, I gotta speak to Charlie!“ Castiel rushed out of the car, waving a goodbye to his brother. There it was, another lie. Dean Winchester already made him lie twice.

He hurried through the corridors of their school, trying to spot Dean or anyone who could lead him to him. Thankfully, Dean was loud as always so he wasn’t really hard to find. 

Leaning against his locker and gesticulating just as in Cas‘ dream, Dean was excitedly telling his friends a story, which beginning nor ending hadn‘t Castiel remembered.

“Um, Dean? We should talk about yesterday’s night.“ Castiel mumbled, but he made sure to be loud enough for Dean to hear him. He really didn’t wanna repeat those words again.

“Wait what?“ Dean stopped talking to his friends and turned to Cas, looking confused as ever. “What happened last night, Cas? What are you talking about?“


	2. Ice Ice Baby

“Yes, very funny, Dean.“ Castiel let out a small nervous chuckle, looking up at Dean with a rather confused frown on his face. _He must have been joking._

“Buddy, I honestly have no idea what you’re talking about. Are you okay?“

Cas felt his muscles growing tense and his heart skipped a beat. He mumbled a quiet apology and grasped onto his backpack as he ran away from Dean and his group of friends, who were already laughing at this whole scene.

“That kid’s always been a bit weird,“ he heard someone say behind his back.

Castiel found an empty corridor and leaned his back against the wall, then slowly slid to the floor, still holding his backpack close to his chest as if it was meant to cover him. He glanced up at the flickering lights above his head. There were old chewing gums all over the ceiling walls. Cas wondered how people even reached that high, let alone put a chewing gum up there.

_He doesn’t remember him._

_Dean Winchester doesn’t remember him._

“Fuck,“ he sighed and immediately covered his mouth with his hand. That didn’t feel as good as he thought it would. Castiel was no saint, but swearing wasn’t something he usually did. After this brief and unpleasant encounter, he had decided to stay away from swearing once again. What good were swear words for if they couldn’t make him feel at least a bit better?

Castiel had come to the realisation that the universe was a cruel place. When he finally came to terms with simply not having a soulmate, the world decided to mock him even more. He thought that not having a soulmate was bad enough, but having his soulmate not remember him made everything so much worse.

Cas‘ chest was heavy and he felt as if he was about to burst into tears any minute, but the tears wouldn’t come. For some reason, he wasn’t able to cry, which at the moment felt more miserable than having a mental breakdown.

He didn’t recall how long he had been sitting there until he felt a hand softly touch his shoulder. Weirdly enough, he didn’t even remember hearing any footsteps nearing him.

Despise everything that’s happened he imagined that it was Dean’s hand that was laying on his shoulder. That everything that happened this morning was just some kind of bad joke.

“You okay?“

Castiel looked up only to see Charlie kneeling in front of him. She looked quite scared, which didn’t really help his current situation. It wasn’t his intention to make his only friend worried about him.

“Let’s just skip today,“ he mumbled, without any given explanation.

“You, Castiel Novak, are asking me to skip classes with you? All of them. You. Skip classes. Okay, this doesn’t sound very well.“

 

Just a couple of minutes later, Charlie had dragged him to a local coffee shop – the one Lucifer worked at. Thankfully, his shift hasn’t started yet. It would be hard to explain to him why his youngest sibling was sitting in front of him instead of being at school.

“Now tell me what’s bothering you. And don’t you dare say it’s nothing because we both can clearly see it’s not true.“ Charlie always sounded pretty confident whenever she said something, and Castiel knew he would never be able to hide anything from her. Sometimes he just needed a little push to spill out all the details.

“I’ve started having dreams,“ Cas muttered, glancing at the coffee menu to avoid looking at Charlie.

“You started what?! And I’m hearing this only now? Cas! Who’s the lucky one?“

Castiel shook his head and explained everything to her. Everything about Dean Winchester being his soulmate and about the fact that his soulmate didn’t remember him.

“Woah. I didn’t even know that was possible,“ she frowned. “I’m sure we can figure this out, though.“ Charlie added quickly after she saw the look Castiel gave her.

They spent a long time sitting in that coffee shop, drinking multiple cafeinated drinks as they tried to come up with a solution for Cas‘ soulmate problem. Charlie thought it would be much easier to simply tell Dean about everything. Obviously, Castiel was against this idea.

“I’ll just observe him and we’ll see what happens,“ he shrugged. He was willing to do anything, but tell the truth to Dean.

“Observe him. Sure, stalker.“ Charlie rolled her eyes. “Look, we’ve been sitting here the whole afternoon and we came up with nothing. Maybe he’s just not ready to have a soulmate. Just befriend him, maybe get to know him better and who knows, maybe he’ll remember.“

It was easy for Charlie to say that, she never had trouble making friends. Castiel, on the other hand, never even intended to make any. How can he befriend one of the most popular kids in school? That was still a mystery to him.

“Would you mind if I joined? I would totally understand if you did, I get it, really.“ He blurted out during their next PE class, the only one he shared with Dean. Already having cursed himself for the way he worded the request, he expected them to laugh at him.

Some kids have nudged each other, but that was all. No laughter, no jokes about him wanting to play a game with them.

And then there was the smile.

Dean looked over at him, obviously surprised with the question, but it was clear that the surprise was a pleasant one. His smile was cheeky, radiant and honest. Castiel swore to himself that he would never forget this smile.

Castiel quickly learned that he pretty much sucked at dodgeball. Even though he was acceptable when it came to avoiding getting hit by the ball, he didn’t have the skill to neither catch it nor throw it at other players. But he wasn’t able to keep dodging the ball forever. In less than 8 minutes, he ran out of breath and couldn’t keep up with the speed the balls were being thrown at him. Soon enough, he got hit by one. Right on top of his head. A nice reminder that not all of his classmates were as glad as Dean, that Cas joined the game.

Rubbing his forehead with an angry frown on his face, he seated himself on the closest bench.

“You okay, man?“

He was hearing this exact question too often for his liking.

Dean sat down next to him, leaving some space between them, but he was still sitting pretty close to Cas.

“Yeah, I’m fine. It was just a ball, not a meteor.“  

“You still should probably put ice on it, though. But if bruised bumpy head is your go-to look, I ain’t stopping you.“ Dean laughed and stood up, reaching his hand over to Castiel to help him stand up.

Castiel stared at the offered hand for a brief moment. His eyes traced the little lines on Dean’s palm, noticing even the smallest details. Dean’s hands were nothing like Castiel’s. Cas‘ hands were small, his fingers long and a bit feminine. On the contrary, Dean’s hands were bigger and his fingers were shorter. His hands were a proof that Dean worked hard, both at the football court and at home.

He held onto Dean’s hand too eagerly, he didn’t want him to notice his hesitation. Castiel pulled himself up from the bench and let go of his hand, maybe a bit too quickly.

“Chill, Cas. I don’t bite,“ Dean snickered and pat Castiel’s shoulder. Dean was touching him a lot more than Castiel would have expected.

He let Dean lead him to his football coach’s office. At first, Cas wanted to go to the nurse’s, but Dean insisted on going to this place. He had explained to him that the coach always kept ice packs in the fridge, in case any of his trainees got hurt during the practice.

“Here ya go. Now hold still.“

Castiel didn’t even have time to react when Dean pressed the ice pack to his forehead. There was no point in denying that his forehead had already started to hurt.

“I hope I don’t freeze your brain out or something.“ Dean laughed, the ice pack on Cas‘ forehead moving as he laughed.

“That’s scientifically impossible, given the size of my brain compared to the ice.“ Castiel snickered.

“Was that a really nerdy try to gloat?“ Dean raised a brow at him.

“Maybe,“ Cas shrugged and took the ice pack from Dean, pressing it to his head himself.

His later encounters with Dean were quick, and always an accident. He met him almost anywhere. In a grocery store, when his dad sent him to buy some milk, and also in the coffee shop where Lucifer worked.

The most recent meeting with Dean happened on accident as well. Gabriel was supposed to give him a ride home, as he did every day. But when Cas came closer to the car, he noticed that Gabriel wasn’t the only one inside.

A younger boy with long brown hair was sitting in the passenger’s seat, where Castiel was supposed to sit. Him and Gabriel were snacking on ice-cream. Their dad wouldn’t be happy if he saw what Castiel did. The ice-cream was dripping all over the seats as the boys were too busy laughing at something to eat it sooner than it melted.

The boys only noticed him when Cas sat down in the back seat of the car. Gabriel greeted his brother with a quick ‘Hi, bro!‘, and the younger kid politely nodded his head and offered Castiel a smile.

“Cas, this is Sammy. Sammy, this is my bro Cas,“ Gabriel introduced the two of them.

The kid, Sam as Cas just learned, rolled his eyes at Gabriel and sighed. “It’s Sam.“ He corrected him.

“Nice to meet you, Sam,“ Castiel smiled and leaned to the front part of the car to shake the kid’s hand. He immediately regretted doing so, as Sam’s hand was completely sticky from all the ice-cream that had dripped on it.

“Sam! Where the hell are you? I’ve been asking half the school where you went!“ Castiel heard someone rush to their car, only to find out that the person was Dean as he peaked inside through the open window.

“I left you a message!“ Sam defended himself and pulled his phone out of his pocket to check it. A quiet ‘Oh‘ followed.

“You forgot to send it, dummy!“ Gabriel snickered. Castiel wondered whether there was a situation, in which Gabe wouldn’t laugh at something.

Sam and Gabriel started arguing about whose fault it was, and Cas leaned back in his seat with a sigh. That was when Dean noticed him, smiling widely.

“Hey, Cas. How ya doing?“

After the initial small talk, they stared at each other in complete silence, until both Gabriel and Sam agreed on something. Quickly after that the Winchester brothers have left, leaving only couple of ruined car seats and the smell of Dean´s leather jacket behind.

Castiel breathed in the smell of freshly baked pie. He smelled apples and cinnamon in the air, and also something he couldn’t yet pinpoint.

He was standing in a kitchen, where he never was before. It was a nice kitchen, definitely not an expensive one, but it had its own character and atmosphere. There were couple of photos pinned to the fridge by colourful magnets. Other magnets, shaped like letters of the alphabet, spelled out ‘U Suck‘ and ‘No U‘.

Castiel stepped closer to the fridge to examine the photos. Most of them featured two boys and an older man, possibly their father. He felt as if he had seen the boys somewhere before, but he couldn’t recall where or under what circumstances.

The sound of a loud thud made him turn around, looking for the source of that noise.

Dean was shaking his hand in the air, and a steaming baking pan was placed on the table, rather carelessly as if it was thrown there.

“Goddammit!“ He sweared, now blowing on his hand to cool it.

Without any hesitation, Castiel opened the fridge and looked for an ice pack. It took him couple of minutes to spot it. The fridge was filled with all kinds of food and drinks. Vegetable, sweet, sour, spicy. Juice, milk, sparkling water, beer. Cas grabbed the ice pack and stopped staring at all the food it contained.

“Here you go,“ he said softly and pressed the ice pack against Dean’s hand. He held it there just as Dean had held the ice to his head before.

“How is it that there is almost always ice involved when we talk to each other?“ Dean laughed.

“Teoretically speaking, we talked more than either of us got injured. That means the ice isn’t _always_ involved.“

“I bet you that there will be much more ice. And to support my cause, I am treating you ice-cream.“ Dean snickered proudly as if proving he was right was the only thing that mattered.

A few moments later, they were both walking down a busy street, Dean with a popsicle in his and, and Cas eagerly snacking on his half eaten ice-cream cone. It wasn’t exceptionally hot outside, but it wasn’t too cold to eat ice cream.

“If I catch a cold, I swear I’ll paint your car pink.“

“Pink, hm? At least it would be easier to spot,“ Dean shrugged with a laugh.

Castiel frowned when his try to upset Dean hasn’t worked. When he thought about it, he had actually never seen Dean really upset. He’s seen him yell at some of his football buddies for couple of times, but he was smiling a ray of sunshine right after. Cas couldn’t imagine being this cheerful all the time.

Time passed quickly, and soon enough they were both laying on Dean’s bed, looking at his old comic books.

“I got this from Sammy as a birthday gift,“ he tossed one to Cas. It looked rather worn out, but it was in a great condition – it was obvious Dean cherished the old piece. “I actually had this one before, but I never told him. But don’t you dare tell that to him!“ He snickered.

Dean’s room was different from Castiel’s. In Cas‘ room, everything had its own place. Dean’s room was, politely said, a mess. There were couple of posters hanging from the wall, and both clean and used clothes all over the place. Cas had even spotted underwear carelessly laying on the floor, but he quickly looked away.

 Unlike Cas‘ room, Dean had no plants in it. Castiel always considered plants to be an important part of every household. They cleansed the energy and also offered a really nice view.

“You really should invest in some plants. Orchids, maybe,“ he glanced over at Dean, hoping he wouldn’t take this as if he was mocking him.

“Man, I murdered a cacti on accident. It dried out. A cacti!“ Dean laughed and shook his head. “They may be nice, but they wouldn’t survive here.“

“It takes just a little work, just water them and talk to them.“

“Talk to them? Dude, who the fuck talks to plants?“

“I do, it helps them grow.“ Castiel defended himself, pouting.

They sat in silence, both listing through the comic books. For Dean it was a nice look back to his childhood, and for Castiel it was an opportunity to get to know him more.

After a little while, Dean pulled his phone out of his pocket and put on some music, which Castiel didn’t recognise.  Castiel rarely listened to music. It wasn’t that he didn’t enjoy it, he just never could figure out what exactly he should listen to.

“What is that?“ He asked, looking over at Dean.

“Dude, seriously? You don’t recognise Metallica?“ Dean arched a brow at him.

They were both laying on Dean’s bed on their backs, looking at the plain white ceiling. They layed in silence, only the music of Dean’s favourite bands filling the air.

Castiel never acted without thinking everything through in the first place. Every choice he made and every step he took were calculated before. He wasn’t really afraid of failure, but he learned that things work out better when he knows what he’s doing.

Dean was, once again, pretty much different. His actions never followed a well thought out plan. He did things because he enjoyed doing them. He made his choices according to how he was feeling in that certain moment. It was natural for Dean to do what he was about to do.

At first, Dean’s hand moved closer to Castiel’s. Then even closer. His fingers were now touching Castiel’s open palm, waiting if the other boy pulls his hand away.

Cas froze, his eyes widenned and he felt his heart skip a beat. None of this made sense to him. But he couldn’t bring himself to pull away.

Dean moved his hand further up Cas‘ arm, his fingers softly caressing the boy’s skin. When he reached Castiel's shoulder, he gripped on it, not too harshly but yet firmly. He made the boy turn to face him and his hand continued its small journey up to Cas‘ cheek. He cupped it and leaned in.

Castiel felt as if he ran out of breath. He could feel his arm trembling under Dean’s touch. Looking up at Dean, he nervously bit his lip.

Weirdly enough, none of this felt uncomfortable.

Dean offered the boy a sly smirk before he pressed his lips against Castiel’s.

 Cas’ eyes fluttered shut. Dean’s kisses were eager, yet soft and Castiel soon found himself trying to sloppily kiss back. It was his first kiss after all.

He hoped he would remember this when he wakes up.

 

 

 


End file.
